Rating: 
Summary: Wordbound.
Review: Poetry is the ultimate headrush. It's an unscheduled eclipse, unexpected lightning from a clear blue sky, a storm that engages senses and emotions. It's orgasmic. Collins' work is not poetry. Further, it eradicates the necessary line between poetry and prose. It's wordbound. There is no room left for that remarkable tango between mind and emotion that dances us away from politics and Wall Street and into the soul of our humanity. There is no space here. Collins constructs a prison of words. It is heresy to compare this man to Frost, as I understand some are doing.
Rating: 
Summary: No Sour Grapes Here
Review: Rather than reciting the names of poets who Billy Collins *isn't*, I'll simply say who Billy Collins *is* (in addition to being the U.S. Poet Laureate, and with good cause). Billy Collins is the first poet in a long time to have a huge readership, both among those who were admittedly NOT fans of poetry, and among those who are conoisseurs of poetry. Billy Collins is, then, the envy of poets who wish for high exposure, a large readership, and huge book sales. These things don't happen to just any poet. Collins is not just any poet. He's Billy Collins, in a category all his own.Collins's poems are fresh and inventive and at the same time take for their subject matter the everyday things we take for granted. He takes the most simple things and turns and turns them in a poem until we see them in a way we never could have without the intervention of his brilliant mind. He processes fresh, raw words and injects wit and feeling and makes of them a very fine wine. NINE HORSES is just as good a work as SAILING ALONE AROUND THE ROOM, which contains works from his previous books. Collins is at the top of his form, and without giving a play-by-play of some of the highlights of the book, I will just say that "Litany" alone is worth the cover price. Collins's intellect is richly sophisticated yet he talks like the neighbor next door. And, passing the test of true intelligence, he is able to explain lofty concepts so that even the simplest of minds can understand. Though, of course, he enraptures high-minded folks in the process.
Rating:
Summary: Succulent feast
Review: The assorted poems in this collection by the Poet Laureate of the United States cover a variety of topics, mostly mundane, yet all like paeans to everyday life. Collins writes in what seems to be another language which is brighter, more evocative, more robust that regular speech. Every poem is a morsel to savor and ponder and exude. Each of the four sections holds its own and also expands the themes running through the collection, creating a majestic scope of living in the reader's mind. This is a stunning and inspiring collection of poetry that proves why Collins is the Poet Laureate.
Rating: 
Summary: publishable
Review: The Billy Collins craze, to my mind at least, is a sign of mass degeneration. We pick up "Nine Horses" the same way we pick up "Harry Potter", to escape the reality of our lives for a little while. Don't get me wrong: escapism has it's place, but this doesn't even work as escapism. Does it have pleasant moments? Sure, and they dissolve instantaneously with no impact, like cotton candy. If Collins wants to be the Mr. Rogers of poetry, he's got the act down. This is good stuff to put next to a "daily affirmation" book, but none of chaos or risk taking inherent in great poetry even taps on the door. There is fun in poetry, sure, a kind of fun to be found nowhere else, but like any kind of fun you have to do a few laps first to get that rush. And Collins never joined the race.
Rating: 
Summary: Postmodernism
Review: The poem "Littany" takes Postmodernism and smacks it up against the old oak poetry tree! It's self-aware and self-reflexive, but it still creates a visceral punch! The other poems are all almost as great.
Rating:
Summary: NINE HORSES
Review: THE WIZARD OF PELLUCID A solid collection sure to entertain. Odd note: curious lack of "jazz" poems, a subject Billy Collins has written about exuberantly in earlier collections. Could some editor at Random House have suggested their reduction?
Rating:
Summary: Postmodernism
Review: Through Nine Horses, ones sees the world through the eyes and the words of one of America's best poets. Simple everyday, ordinary events are described, explained, and examined in colorful detail that does not lose the reader in a maze of words. Most poets, both contemporary and old, overextend themselves and the words almost always seem to get in the way.
We are not spectators to what Billy Collins sees or feels, we are what he sees and feels. He simply allows us to enter his world, and shows it to us through our imagination.
Rating:
Summary: Simple Intensity
Review: Through Nine Horses, ones sees the world through the eyes and the words of one of America's best poets. Simple everyday, ordinary events are described, explained, and examined in colorful detail that does not lose the reader in a maze of words. Most poets, both contemporary and old, overextend themselves and the words almost always seem to get in the way.
We are not spectators to what Billy Collins sees or feels, we are what he sees and feels. He simply allows us to enter his world, and shows it to us through our imagination.
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